Posts published in “Day: March 19, 2015”

BARRETT STATION The Harris County Engineering Dept . held a public meeting on proposed plans for roadway access in this area last Thursday, March 12.

Among plan goals are to alleviate congestion on FM 2100 by providing alternative routes, create a loop pattern around Barrett Station that uses Via Dora as a connective to schools, provide a logical future street pattern, create potential for more north/south streets and provide but minimize connections to the Grand Parkway.

Although the meeting was presided over by Harris County Representatives, two engineers from Edminster, Hinshaw, Russ and Associates, Chris Brown and Elaine Alverado did much of the planning work. They drove all of northeast Harris County, submitted the proposal and did most of the talking about their reasons for proposing the plan as presented.

Roadway construction will be based upon development of specific areas into residential living space. Barrett Station and the sections of Crosby that are east of Bohemian Hall were the focus of the proposed thoroughfare in the unincorporated area of Harris County, Texas which lies outside any city extraterritorial jurisdiction. The purpose of the project was to develop a comprehensive thoroughfare alignment plan for those areas. The boundary of the study area is approximately defined by the western Liberty County line, the northern Baytown extraterritorial jurisdiction line, and the eastern Houston extraterritorial jurisdiction line.

U.S. Highway 90 forms part of the west side of the study boundary and crosses through the northeastern region of the study area.

Comments are still being taken online at http://.gl/forms/N5vFe5FPg9

Exhibits showing aerial photography and alternative routes for the thoroughfare corridors under consideration were presented at the meeting. Representatives from Harris County and the project study team were available at the public meeting to answer questions.

Raymond Anderson, Chief of Staff of Architecture and Engineering Division of Public Infrastructure Dept. spoke first describing how the plans do not address the western section of Crosby as the City of Houston has jurisdiction over them and the City of Baytown has jurisdiction over the southern end of the area. Liberty County holds jurisdiction over the area east of the bayou limits of Crosby.

The Crosby area which includes Barrett Station has no incorporation, town or township although it holds a City charter with the State of Texas the Charter was allowed to lapse in the 1970s.

Designations are subject to change with changing development conditions. Examples of proposed changes not only include the Via Dora encirclement of Barrett Station but also include taking Euell Road with addition of bridge across county lines to meet up with the proposed Grand Parkway.

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The Crosby Fair & Rodeo and the Crosby-Huffman Chamber of Commerce teamed to present the First Annual Rockin C Crawfish Festival on Saturday, March 28 from 3:00 p.m. until midnight. The Crawfish Shak will be making the mudbugs by their own special receipts.

There is to be canival rides, food and fun inside the Rockin C Arena. Admission is $15 at the gate and $10 in advance with some ticket sales on-line being even less expensive when available but tickets may be purchased at crosbyrodeo.com.

Featured entertainment is Johnny Lookin For Love Lee of Urban Cowboy fame and the new Zydeco act, Travis Matt and the Kingpins.

The 1980 hit Lookin for Love put John Lee Ham into the limelight. He was born in Alta Loma, Texas on July 3, 1946, and he came of age listening to first-generation rock & roll artists such as Elvis Presley, Chuck Berry, and Jerry Lee Lewis. Billing himself as Johnny Lee, Ham went from fan to performer in high school, when he and his friends formed a band called the Road Runners. The Road Runners local success came to a halt when Lee joined the Navy and served in Southeast Asia as Americas involvement in Vietnam grew.

Lee met Mickey Gilley in 1968; Lee reminded Gilley of the time they had met and talked music in Galveston, Texas, and Gilley allowed Lee to join him on-stage that evening.

Gilley signed Lee as a backing vocalist and trumpet player, not knowing that the two had actually never met. For five years, Lee was part of Gilleys band for his standing engagement at Gilleys nightclub in Pasadena, Texas.

Lee stepped out as a solo act in 1973; he cut a few songs for the tiny Astro label, but when they failed to chart, he started working with Gilley again.

In 1979, the movie Urban Cowboy had Irving Azoff, producing the film and coordinating the soundtrack, he helped Lee land a small part in the film playing himself, and asked Lee to record a song for the soundtrack. Lee was given the song Lookin for Love, and when Urban Cowboys soundtrack album came out in tandem with the film in 1980, Lookin for Love rose to number one on the country charts and number five on the pop charts. Now signed to Azoffs Full Moon label (distributed by Warner/Elektra/Asylum), Lee dropped his own album titled Lookin for Love, and it spun off three more country hits, One in a Million, Pickin Up Strangers, and Prisoner of Hope. Lees days on the pop charts were over by 1981, but he was a consistent hitmaker on country radio for the next few years.

1999s Live at Gilleys and 2002s Live at Billy Bobs Texas. Lee continued to record for smaller labels, releasing The 13th of July in 2003, Its a Long Way Back in 2004, and the holiday-themed album Santa Claus Is Lookin for Love in 2005. In 2008, Lee began appearing regularly in Branson, Missouri. While business dealings led to a falling out between Lee and Mickey Gilley in the 80s, in 2015 the two buried the hatchet and reunited for a concert tour celebrating the 35th anniversary of the release of Urban Cowboy.

Travis Matte and the Kingpins

Travis Matte and the Kingpins started in Sept. of 2004 with the release of Dis aintcha mommas Zodico featuring the song Bar be que and drink a few and received a lot of air play throughout Louisiana. In Jan. 2005 they started doing live shows and formed a formal group. The first CD formed a fan base.

In 2005 they release Zydeco Train that distributors say was #1 selling CD in its genre of music.

In 2006 they produced Ho, Ho, Ho and the other entitled Booty Zydeco! Their Christmas CD received instant air play with the song entiled Santa Claus dont wear no draws and our Booty Zydeco CD was nearly a double CD with 21 songs featuring 18 original songs and 3 covers!

LSU fans around the world noticed them in 2007 for a song entitled Tiger Tailgate Party landing us LSU shows and one including a party for LSU Alumni at The House of Blues in New Orleans! The song also got New Orleans Saints Coach Sean Paytons attention and some arena play.

In 2008 the release of HipHop Zyderock was a blend of past styles and several new ideas to express on styles ranging from Zydeco, rock, hip-hop, Cajun and everything in between along with original ideas and styles. They dropped the term Zydeco from the band name and featured several party songs and several risky songs that created controversy.

2010 the band released POP IT CD and received several number one radio request spots for the song entitled Tawanna and even had rave reviews in other countries including France which wrote about the original French song entitled Boire Le Biere/Drinking Beer.

In 2011 the band decided to do something totally different from our normal original CDs and record several old songs that inspired us local and national artist including Chuck Barry, Little Richard, Johnnie Allen, TK Hulin and even featured the ever so famous House of the rising sun the CD was entitled OLD SCHOOL.

The band released Lets Party CD in April of 2012 and blended all of their previous styles of creativity along with some brand new sounds which many who have heard consider its own genre of music which is a huge compliment to the group.

2013 the band decided to do an all roots traditional style CD featuring our favorite cajun oldies entitled Old time cajun songs. Not to confuse this CD with kingpins taking a different direction we simply titled the CD Travis Matte and did not include the Kingpins. The Cajun project was something close to our hearts and something we loved recording and hope everyone loves it as much as we loved recording it!

In 2014 the band was awarded with 6 CFMA awards from the Old Time Cajun Songs recording and also released its 10th record entitled X or simply roman numeral 10 which featured all original brand new Kingpins tunes including When shes alone and Mardi Gras parade which made nearly every Mardi Gras parade route.